| Francisca Valenzuela | |
|---|---|
Francisca Valenzuela performing on stage. |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Francisca Valenzuela |
| Born | March 17, 1987 San Francisco, California, United States |
| Origin | Santiago, Chile |
| Genres | Pop, jazz, folk, alternative rock |
| Occupations | Singer, song-writer, poet, composer |
| Instruments | Vocals, Piano, Guitar |
| Years active | 2006 – present |
| Labels | Feria Music Records |
| Associated acts | Los Bunkers, Inti-Illimani, Violeta Parra, Julieta Venegas, DJ Bitman |
| Website | franciscavalenzuela.com |
Francisca Valenzuela (born March 17, 1987 in San Francisco, California) is an American born Chilean singer, songwriter, poet, instrumentalist, and composer of Pop and Rock songs. She was born and raised in San Francisco, California, where she resided until the age of 12, before moving to Chile. She is considered to be one of the singing revelations of Chilean music from 2006.[1] On June 30, 2007 she released her first solo studio album Muérdete La Lengua in Chile, where it was certified Gold. Her second studio album Buen Soldado will be released on March 2011 in United States, México and Chile simultaneously.
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Francisca Valenzuela's career is divided between the United States and Chile. She lived her first twelve years in San Francisco, California, United States. Valenzuela is the fourth oldest and only daughter of five children, born to two Chilean born scientists, Pablo DT Valenzuela and Bernardita Méndez. She demonstrated interest in music at a very early age. She began taking music lessons at the age of 7. By the age of ten she was playing acoustic guitar, was studying classical piano and was taking her first steps in writing songs. She lived and attended school in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. During summer vacations, she and her brothers would travel to Santiago, where they would visit relatives. Eventually, the family would make the permanent move to Santiago, when Francisca was 12. In 2000, Francisca published her first book,"Defenseless Waters" a collection of her poems. She released her second book,"Abejorros/Madurar", which was distributed in Spain and Latin America. As part a promotional tour for "Defenseless Waters", she brought her guitar and keyboard to venues in northern California, where she gave poetry readings and performed songs of her own composition. Valenzuela is fluent in English and Spanish, and often composes songs in both languages. Although she and her family still live in Santiago, Valenzuela often returns to San Francisco to visit.
Shortly after the release of her first book, she and her family moved to Chile when she was 13. Residing in Chile, Francisca took part as singer in interschool festivals presenting her original songs and she continued with training in classic piano. In 2004 she attended an intensive jazz program at the Berklee College School of Music in Boston.[1]
In 2006, Valenzuela released her first solo single called "Peces", which she wrote at age 13. After a few months after its release, "Peces" gained popularity on Chilean radio. Valenzuela gave radio interviews and concerts to promote her new song. "Peces" was recognized by Rolling Stone magazine, as one of the best 100 songs of the year 2006. The song was written in 2000, when Valenzuela was thirteen years old. She and her family had moved to Santiago that year from San Francisco. Valenzuela wrote the song about a boy she liked at school who didn't reciprocate her feelings. At the end of that year, she released her second single "Dulce" to radio Rock & Pop. "Dulce" reached number two on the national charts in Chile.
To add more achievements to her short musical career, on May 19, 2007, she was invited by Julieta Venegas to open her concert at Teatro Caupolicán. On June 30, 2007, she released her first solo album called Muérdete La Lengua with the production of the brothers Mauricio and Francisco Durán (Los Bunkers), who contains 10 songs (included "Peces" and "Dulce"). The Chilean press quickly dubbed her as The Princess of Rock, calling her, " new musical revelation". Soon after its release, the album was certified as Gold in Chile. Valenzuela performed in New York City at the annual LAMC conference in July 2008. This was Valenzuela's first musical exposure in the US and gave her an opportunity to showcase her music outside of Latin American. She has performed in Mexico and Uruguay, and continued to perform at various venues in her native Chile.[1]
In early 2009, Valenzuela begun the pre-production stages for her second album. In addition to performed her own music contributing in the Chilean water conservation documentary, H2O:Cero, by composing a new song called "En Blanco" for the film. She has also participated in the album tribute for Violeta Parra, recording a new version of "Run Run Se Fue Pa'l Norte" as well as recording a version of Inti-Illimani's song, "Vuelvo".[1]
She also was guest vocalist on Latin Bitman's 2009 album Colour, Valenzuela co-wrote and sang two songs, "Help Me" and "Someday". 'Help Me' was later released as a single in the United States and Chile and a music video was also filmed in Los Angeles in November 2009.[2] In the summer of 2010, Valenzuela began recording for her second studio album in Santiago. She continued to perform at various festivals and concerts in both Chile and Mexico. Valenzuela completed the recording and production phase for her second album in late 2010. On January 1, 2011, Valenzuela release in digital formats her first single "Quiero Verte Más" from her second studio album calls Buen Soldado, this album will be released on March 3, 2011 in Chile as a phyiscal and digital release.[3]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHI | ||||||||||||
| Muérdete La Lengua |
|
7 |
|
|||||||||
| Buen Soldado |
|
3 | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHI |
||||||||||||
| "Peces" | 2006 | 122 | Muérdete La Lengua | |||||||||
| "Dulce" | 2 | |||||||||||
| "Muérdete La Lengua" | 2007 | 6 | ||||||||||
| "Afortunada" | 2008 | 30 | ||||||||||
| "Muleta" | 78 | |||||||||||
| "El Tiempo en Las Bastillas" | 2009 | 93 | Los 80, más que una moda | |||||||||
| "Quiero Verte Más" | 2011 | 17 | Buen Soldado | |||||||||
| "Que Sería" | 71 | |||||||||||
| "En Mi Memoria" | 91 | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHI |
||||||||||||
| "Help Me" (with Latin Bitman) |
2009 | 91 | Colour | |||||||||
| "Al Frío" (with Leonel García) |
2010 | 84 | Tú | |||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||